The latest rumor about The Avengers makes the movie's plot sound even more complicated than you could possibly imagine. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes drops hints about his James Bond role, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is an angelic one man army!

Joss Whedon's upcoming movie The Avengers features all of the heroes who've already…
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But at least, the latest set of crazy rumors from a supposed inside source might explain how Hugo Weaving could have shot scenes as the Red Skull and nobody has found out about it: "A lot of The Avengers was shot in secret. These are where Red Skull's scenes were filmed." Like I said, that pretty much defeats any possible rebuttals I could muster, so let's just move onto some more highlights:

-The aliens are called The Redacted and are a new version of The Skrulls. Fox still own Skrulls, so Marvel have changed them enough to not get sued. They're multicoloured and are shapeshifters.
-Thanos is in the movie. There were rumors some months ago that Loki would do business with Thanos and they're true. Thanos is tricked by Loki in the movie. Basically, Loki has been collecting Infinity Gems and the Infinity Gauntlet, but tricks Thanos in to thinking that the Infinity Gauntlet is the most powerful. In return, Thanos gives him The Redacted.
-The Leviathan is an alien serpent given to Loki by Thanos as a part of the deal.
-Red Skull is in the movie. Loki meets him on his travels. They split the 6 Infinity Gems between them. Loki takes the Mind, Reality and Power gems and Red Skull takes the Soul, Time and Space gems.
-The Redacted discover that Loki tricked their master, and betray him. Hence Loki seemingly being on The Avengers side in some set photos.

There's a lot to digest there, chief among them that the Skrull have actually been renamed as...the Redacted? Or they have some other top secret name that has simply been redacted? I'm not sure, though I find it much more amusing to assume it's the first. All in all, this doesn't seem to really fit at all with what we've heard or seen of this film — indeed, the set photos from the apparent climactic fight scene seemed to fairly clearly show Loki fighting the Avengers, not allying himself with them — but again... what these spoilers presuppose is, what if most of the movie was shot in secret? So yes, I can't really argue any of this, though I'm still going to be a contrarian jerk and remain deeply, deeply skeptical about all of this.

The names of some upcoming Marvel Comics Lego sets have also been revealed. While those for Wolverine and Spider-Man are simply based on the comics, it's believed that the Avengers sets are indeed based on the film. That distinction is worth making, if only because some of the sets seem to reveal a few plot points:

So, assuming this has anything to do with what actually happens in the film - and that isn't even remotely guaranteed - we can expect the Quinjet to make an appearance and be the site of a big battle, for Loki to escape from something or somewhere related to the Cosmic Cube, for the Hulk to attempt to get out of the Helicarrier - possibly without permission, which is very Hulk - and, perhaps most crucially, for Captain America to have a motorcycle. We can only hope there will be some sort of Avenging Sidecar for Nick Fury to sit in. [Comic Book Movie]

Here's a massive new piece of promo art. You're going to want to click and expand this one. [Daily Blam]

Skyfall

When asked about his role in the latest James Bond movie, Ralph Fiennes revealed only this: "I'm allowed to say that I'm a government agent." A supposed inside source then followed up that report with these claims:

"Ralph Fiennes plays a government agent, which we never get a name on, because he is set to play the new M. Skyfall centers around M (Judi Dench) where her past forces her to leave as head of MI6, and find a new M. The board of MI6 then turns to a government agent (Ralph Fiennes) to take over. M (Dame Judi) is now forced to train the new head of MI6."

There's no real way to judge the veracity of these rumors. While they seem decently plausible as these things go, I'd advise still taking that all with a pretty liberal heaping of salt until we hear something more official. [MovieWeb]

Here's a production video made for the launch of the official tie-in website. [First Showing]

Black Sands

In his ongoing bid to make the world more awesome again with cheesy high concept action movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger is reportedly filming this film where he plays some sort of angel or John Constantine like figure who takes down a weapons manufacturer and his private army all by himself. Admittedly, in his prime, Schwarzenegger didn't even need supernatural powers to defeat entire armies, but apparently late-period Arnold needs to tap into arcane sources. [/Film]

The Woman in Black

Here's a TV spot for the Daniel Radcliffe-starring 19th century horror movie.

Piranha 3DD

Although the Piranha 3D sequel will be released direct to DVD in the United Kingdom, the movie's co-writer Patrick Melton promises it will still be released in theaters in the United States:

"About a month ago, it was tested and scored very well. So well the studio gave us more money to enhance the FX. Soon, it'll be done and ready for a theatrical release. Because of the ‘Spring Break vibe' in the film, spring was the obvious time to open it. And because Dimension Films financed the movie and owns the movie, they call the shots on when it's released worldwide. So, that's the long and short of it. All good. In theaters this spring. See you then."

He also says that the movie was moved from its initial Thanksgiving release date because production needed to wait for warmer weather before shooting in a water park, and this forced everything back a few months. [Daily Dead]

Game of Thrones

A report on the show's filming locations in Northern Ireland ends with the note that "it is understood that, after the second series is completed, filming will resume there in the next few years." I'm going to assume that means filming will continue during the next few years instead of after a few years — even though the sentence seems to mean the latter, the former is much more in keeping with everything we have heard. Either way, assuming we are talking about multiple years, this would suggest that the show will indeed be making a commitment to filming multiple seasons, as has been heavily rumored. [The Guardian]

Alcatraz

Star Sarah Jones explains the journey of her character, Detective Rebecca Madsen, who has deep family connections to Alcatraz and is skeptical that the prisoners have really returned from beyond:

"It's about her journey into a very new phase, a new chapter in her life that connects her to her past that she didn't know about before. Her world is basically turned upside down in the pilot and [the show] follows her through trying to put the pieces together, while she's catching the worst of the worst coming back and wreaking havoc on the good people of America."

"There's definitely secrets he's keeping from them. He lets stuff out, but really lets it out in a very thin trickle. It's not like a big idea of you become president and then go, 'All right, let me show you what's in the secret closet where the aliens are.' It becomes very need-to-know with him, because he's old-school G-man."

Garcia also explains why he doesn't have to know everything about his character at the outset, and why even learning contradictory information later can actually help his performance:

"I've gotten used to working this way from having done a show with these people before. I enjoy having to fill in my own blanks at the beginning. If stuff gets revealed later, even if it seems contradictory, I always feel that contradiction is what makes us people. So when you behave in a way that's not how people would have expected, it's a very human way to behave. So I've always enjoyed those moments myself as an actor."